


Missing

by ChrisBranNorling



Category: Dungeons & Dragons - All Media Types
Genre: Cisgender Character, Gen, Homebrew Setting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-17
Updated: 2019-01-17
Packaged: 2019-10-11 13:58:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,101
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17448314
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChrisBranNorling/pseuds/ChrisBranNorling
Summary: In Abadgi something is amiss.





	Missing

Frowning, Waem can feel her skin slide again the cool crystal of her iridescent mask. She looks over at the dunes threatening to overtake Abadgi, red. She looks to pillar of crystal that is nestled nearby, blue-green and glowing. The two piercings in her mask jingle a little bit as she looks to the sky, pale blue and yellow from the morning sun. A pillar is missing.

Crystal soled shoes clink over the stone road as she turns, her robes fluttering with the meager wind. Marching back into the city of clay buildings, she casts about for her partner, wanting to catch those familiar red robes and horned mask as she starts to rush. A few running steps and she turns the corner to what she knows is a dead end. The red clay wall towers upwards as she runs towards it, but as Waem is only a foot away she jumps, the toes of her shoes coming into contact with the wall with a clink and her body goes parallel to the ground as she runs up it.

Breaching the top of the building with another leap, she starts to run over the flat rooftops, her red robes whipping behind her from the speed that she picks up doing so. There’s a sudden but familiar pressure against her mind, and soft, amused words slip between her ears

‘What is your rush, fellow kefil?’

She immediately makes a turn and sees Kiron’s deep blue mask poking up over one of the nearby walls. His hands press against the clay and help him heave himself up to start walking towards her.

Waem’s eyes squint, focusing the warmth of her magic through her mask, she answers in kind, projecting it to Kiron. ‘One is missing.’

His step falters, and his mask immediately swings around to the northwest corner of Abadgi that she has been scouting, three metal piercings clinking against his mask. Changing his focus, he starts to run that way, Waem following soon after.

‘How long ago did you notice?’ Kiron’s robes flow with his swift movements, leaping between buildings with practised ease like Waem.

‘At most three minutes.’ She puts on a burst of speed to take the lead, easily curving their path left before skidding to a halt, her protruding mask pointing upwards at the pale blue sky.

A hand flies upwards from beneath Kiron’s robes, hand outstretched towards the space. The air shimmers, warping slightly as if from heat haze, before it starts to turn blue-green. A faux-image of a pillar of crystal filters into existence.

‘You need to get a message to the kahin about this.’ Despite the telepathic connection, Kiron’s voice sounds strained with worry.

Not bothering to answer for the haste that he inspires, Waem focuses for a moment, then rushes forwards at a double pace, making for the domed buildings at the centre of the city.

 

Mumbi, the kahin for Abadgi, slowly steps up onto the roof, the camel half of her body moving a little oddly as she centres herself, and the blue robes of her uniform whip around in the wind. Her mask is a spider of opaque white quartz with only slits over her eyes. She’s accompanied by her lahes, Kofi, brown robes fitting over his muscled scales.

‘Waem told me that it was discovered just at sunrise?’ Mumbi’s clear voice is heard to easily in the three other’s heads.

‘Yes, she came to me promptly after she found it.’ Kiron straightens, his cowl shifting over hidden horns, making sure that Waem has her credit for this.

‘You have done well,’ Mumbi nods towards Waem, who stands behind everyone. ‘Bring your illusion down, Kiron.’

He does just that, slowly lowering the illusion of the crystal pillar until it is nestled on the roof with the group.

Taking out a small blue-green shard from within her robes, Mumbi holds it and her other hand towards the illusion, stilling. The very subtle transparency of the illusory crystal solidifies as the shard melts away, and Kiron dispels it, leaving a solid structure in its place.

Kofi steps forward now, a crystal tipped claw coming out to clink against the new pillar of crystal, and it slowly raises into the air, following the motion of his claw upwards until it settles back into position.

‘You must find the pillar, Kiron, Waem.’ Mumbi looks towards both of them, and they nod in return. ‘The most we can continue this pretense is a few weeks.’

‘If we get a storm?’ Kofi starts, voice deep and warm in their heads, speaking a worry they all felt.

‘We must manage.’ Looking out to the desert beyond the city, she sighs, audibly. ‘I expect you’ll find evidence of them crossing the Red Wastes, but you can never be too sure. Kofi, have the umna search the city for any trace.’

He nods and leaps off of the building, tail the last they see of him.

‘As such, I have none to spare to help you.’ Her robes bulge out, arms crossing beneath them.

Waem looks out with her, eyes narrowing under her mask. There’s only the port at the edges of Istria out that way, and beyond that, the Crossroads. ‘I heard talk back in Nairo of the Crossroad mercenaries.’

Mumbi and Kiron look at her with silence, until Mumbi nods for Waem to continue.

‘If they’re going out to Narel, we don’t have time to get support from Janron. A mercenary group might be discrete enough to rely on instead of those baruks already there.’ Waem swallows dry, not accustomed to suggesting strategy, especially to a kahin.

The sun rises higher in the time that there is only silence from Mumbi, haloing her in gold.

‘That is . . . acceptable, Waem.’ She nods and starts to walk to the edge of the roof. ‘Focus now on gathering evidence. If we find proof that they did head north, I will reach out to the Crossroads.’

Waem straightens at the praise, nodding as Mumbi slips down onto the wall to go to the street below. When she looks back to Kiron, he’s looking at her with his head tilted.

‘What?’

He shakes his head, ‘You never showed an eye for plans when we were umna in Nairo.’

Shrugging with a wry smile under her mask, hard points jut out from underneath the heavy cloth on her shoulders. ‘I guess it was never really important then.’

There’s a soft click of a tongue against teeth, and Kiron reaches his hands out to ruffle the top of Waem’s cowl, messing up the lay of the fabric.

**Author's Note:**

> A [commission](http://remnantofahero.tumblr.com/post/180243261521/flat-color-commission-for-chrisbrannorling-of-a) I got of Waem.
> 
> Glossary in order of appearance:
> 
> Kefil- rank within the Caretakers, wandering Caretakers, generally used for inspections  
> Kahin- rank within the Caretakers, leaders of the Caretakers, stays in a city  
> Lahes- rank within the Caretakers, aids to kahin  
> Red Wastes- a vast almost lifeless desert that spans from Abadgi to the Stone Pillars and Ringing Peaks, it is thousands of leagues long and wide  
> Umna- rank within the Caretakers, stay within cities and tend to the crystals there  
> Baruk- an unkind word that means a person who will easily betray, generally paints a person in an unkind and untrustful light  
> Caretakers- a guild in Istria that takes care of the crystals that are used for public life


End file.
